Collaborative Collage

This process certainly includes a lot of rules and limitations, specifically pertaining to the “collaborative” part of it. On one hand, you have to comply with the specific steps that you are taking such as texture, lines, etc, which limits your process a lot. It is one thing to come up with an element that works with the photo that they have chosen and what other people have chosen, but to also work within the boundaries of the step is very difficult to do. Additionally, this certainly makes for some challenges when you return to your own piece and you have lines, texture, and other elements that you must work with that may not always fit your own creative process. Although this seems limiting, it can also help you to think outside of the box and those limitations and stretch your imagination to see what you can do with other people’s creative choices. For me, I chose to get rid of all of it which is not really complying with what I said. However, sometimes you need to move past these rules and limitations and things that have already been put down and make it your own to be happy with a piece. 

At first, I was very confused on what to do with other’s choices as in terms of my paper choice, photo, and everything that people put onto my collage, it didn’t seem cohesive to my own creative vision. While I thought that all of the choices made were very interesting and might have worked in another piece, I could not wrap my head around a way to incorporate them into a finished piece or expand on any of the ones there. Because of that, I decided to get rid of it all which certainly helped in my creative process. Although I did keep the whale, I painted over everything and tied it into a sea-scape which I had a lot of fun with. I think that with all of the texture pieces and other elements that seemed to just be there, I was attached to the idea of a true collage (photos pasted on top of each other, sporadic elements), but for me to truly enjoy this piece, I had to force myself to move past that which resulted in something I am very happy with. 

I think that one thing I learned from this project is that I shouldn’t be afraid to make bold decisions that may not be what I was originally intending to do in the first place. It is not helpful for me to try and hold onto things that I am not happy with in my art as ultimately, it results in me being unhappy with my finished product. Sometimes, it is very helpful to let go of these things and make bold decisions as essentially, art is about making decisions that test the limits of your creativity and push you to try new things. It is about experimentation and testing until you come up with something that makes you proud.